Pamela R. Benda, 33, a White female from University City, Missouri, had recently moved into an apartment at 6600 Washington and was working at the Washington University Faculty Conference Center when an ordinary Saturday night turned fatal. On the evening of February 18, 1978, she went to a St. Louis County lounge called “Some Place Else” on Lindbergh Boulevard, where she crossed paths with Winford L.
Stokes, who was out with acquaintances and drifting through the night looking for attention and another drink. As the hours wore on and his companions prepared to leave, Stokes lingered behind with Pamela after she offered him a ride, the two of them separating from the last small tether of witnesses and stepping into the private dark where the story would later have to be reconstructed from what was left behind.
Three days later, on February 21, the stillness inside Pamela’s apartment broke when the building manager used a pass-key to let a serviceman in. In a back bedroom they found her nude body sprawled on the floor, a pillow or pillowcase covering her head and an apron wrapped around her neck. The bedroom had been ransacked and the apartment left in disarray, enough that investigators stayed for hours collecting what they could: a butcher knife sitting in the toilet bowl, her clutch purse and its contents, and latent fingerprints lifted from objects in the room. Police also learned that a pendant watch and her automobile were missing, details that turned the scene from a nightmare into a hunt.
An autopsy the next day painted a brutal timeline in bruises and breaks. The medical examiner documented multiple cuts and deep wounds, extensive bruising, abrasions that ringed her neck, hemorrhaging in neck muscles and structures, and a recently broken portion of the hyoid bone—injuries consistent with a violent assault. The cause of death was determined to be manual strangulation, with linear abrasions suggesting the apron played a role in the compression around her neck. The examiner also found spermatozoa and concluded she likely had intercourse within six hours of death, and that she had died more than a day before the autopsy—placing her death back in the narrow window after she was last seen alive that Saturday night.
The investigation tightened around Stokes as physical evidence and the trail of stolen property began to align. Four latent prints from inside the apartment were later matched to him, lifted from items including a scotch bottle, a brass bed headboard, and a cosmetic box on the dresser—quiet, stubborn proof that he had been there. After that, police issued a pickup order for him. Witness accounts added momentum: Stokes was seen driving Pamela’s car, and his estranged wife, Ramona, saw the vehicle near the Northwestern Hotel where he had been staying. He gave Ramona a pendant watch, and the two left in the victim’s car for South Bend, Indiana; the watch was later sold at an antique shop while they were there.
On March 25, 1978, detectives from University City traveled to South Bend and met Stokes at a police station, where they advised him of his rights and questioned him about Pamela. He began with flat denials—claiming he didn’t know her, hadn’t been to the lounge, and hadn’t seen the watch—then shifted stories when confronted with what investigators already had, including the fingerprint evidence. In one version he tried to place himself in a “party” scenario in the apartment with multiple people; when pressed, he changed course again and described the night as beginning at the lounge, continuing to Pamela’s apartment, and escalating into violence after she supposedly struck him—at which point he admitted knocking her down and later realizing she wasn’t breathing. He also admitted searching the apartment and taking items, including the keys and the car. A St. Louis County fingerprint supervisor later testified to the print identifications linking Stokes to the crime scene.
The case moved from pursuit to prosecution in the months that followed. A grand jury indictment filed June 12, 1978 charged Stokes with murdering Pamela “on or about February 19, 1978,” a date range consistent with the last-seen timeline, the discovery on February 21, and the medical findings. In October 1979, a St. Louis County jury convicted him of capital murder and assessed the death penalty; the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence in 1982. After years of collateral challenges in state and federal courts, Missouri ultimately carried out the sentence: Stokes was executed by lethal injection on May 11, 1990 at the Potosi Correctional Center, after last-minute stays and appeals were vacated.
